Caloric Output Varies???

[Fenbay]

Ok so I have diligently tracked for one week my food consumption and output based on info from fitday.com. (awesome site btw)

I have well over a 10,000 calorie DEFICIT for the week according to my activities and lifestyle/basal calorie output. This includes my weights work as well as cardio/racquetball etc.

Here's the big question: I haven't lost any weight this week. So how accurate can a person's caloric output based entirely on my age and weight be? We always hear about how one person's metabolism can be so much higher than another's.

Anyone have a semi-educated explanation on how average calories burned actually apply individually? Could a 250 pound guy only burn 1500 calories sitting around all day versus another 250 pound guy burning 2500 doing the same sitting around?

I'm trying to figure out the best diet to lose some fat but maintain and grow muscle and right now I'm really confused on how many calories I should be taking in on average.

[LAM]

if you are not eating enough your body will go in starvation mode and lower your BMR.

how did you determine your caloric needs ?

[Shao-LiN]

Anyone have a semi-educated explanation on how average calories burned actually apply individually? Could a 250 pound guy only burn 1500 calories sitting around all day versus another 250 pound guy burning 2500 doing the same sitting around?

I'd almost think it would be common sense, unless I have faulty common sense. My answer would be yes. One guy would be a couch potato who is overweight, while the latter could be a weightlifter.

[Fenbay]

"how did you determine your caloric needs ?"

I haven't yet. That's part of the question. I know there's the varying formulas based on body weight, but I wanted to try and tailor something more to my real-world needs.

I weigh 285 right now at 6'1 ...working out 3-4 times a week with weights and doing hard-core cardio 2-3 times a week. My goal is to get to 230-240ish with a low BF as possible.

I am a naturally very big guy, believe it or not even at 285 I don't really look like a fat bastard, but I want to kill some of the bulk and lean out.

I naturally gravitate towards the power-lifter side of things I guess from days of football training. My work-outs consist of usually 3-4 exercises per muscle group doing 4 sets of 6-8 reps. I've seen some incredible strength gains since I started back into a good work-out schedule. I've been doing the above for a little over 2 months now and my bench has gone from ~250 to 320 and I've gone up in every other exercise as well.

So after all that long windedness I really want to figure out the BEST diet to lose the fat and gain the muscle. I'm well comitted to doing what it takes, but I'm still confused on how to attain the goal the best. Low carb? Low cal? etc? I DO NOT want to lose muscle in the process. Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

[galileo]

Fitday's caloric requirements are very high. Don't worry about it too much, find your own metabolic rate.